Where in the world...

One of our textbook themes was China's people, geography, climate, topography, etc. Our oral exam was to talk about our own state and its characteristics. I had to look up a bunch of information, like square km, population, climate, etc. In China, every child knows the exact size of China (in square km.) and its population. When noone in our class knew the same information about the US, our teacher said "Oh it's ok that you forgot the size of the US." Unfortunately, I never knew and I definitely could not even now tell you the size of the US in square km. This definitely is a subtle reflection of the differences in Chinese and US education. Chinese education is many times more about memorization and pure knowledge whereas US educations is more about encouraging creative thinking and innovation. I think if I had to learn statistics, they were more regarding population rather than geography. However, I never took a geography class. I think the US stance regarding this kind of education is that statistics are obviously important (seeing trends, evaluating our society), but they are also something we can look up. Developing our own personal opinions and interpreting, for example, statistics, is different. I'm not saying one way is better or worse, but I have heard a lot about these differences in education and sicne I can't observe these differences firsthand, I think this is a great example.

Also, one of my teachers mentioned something interesting about Chinese minorities. There are 55 minorities and 56 ethnic groups (55 minorities + Han ethnic group). Every Chinese person belongs to a group. However, my teacher's parents were from two different groups, one from the Han, one from a minority. Rather than simply being a part of both groups, the parents must decide at birth which group their child will be a part of. My teacher's parents decided for her to be the minority. The obvious reason I can see is that my teacher can have as many children as she wants as a minority, but I'm not sure what kinds of advantages and disadvantages there are to being one or the other as far as government, opportunities, etc. are concerned. What are the deciding factors in choosing your child's ethnic group?